The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.

Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ. You will have to register before you can post or view full size images in the forums.

Hybrid View

Therafim - A setting in need of detailed maps

Hello there. Since this is the first time I've made any sort of request here, I expect to make mistakes, but ask for your patience.

For a long time, I have been fiddling with and working on finishing up the design of the world of Therafim, a setting mostly intended for use in roleplaying, but also for use in writing. Recently, I began revising the setting to be more in-line with my evolved view of the world as I have used it for playing as well as a story setting. While doing so, I realized that the maps that I have at present are simply not adequate for my needs, and I lack the skill to do them myself. So now I come here to request someone to help me out by taking a commission to do some significant map work. The job will include the two following tasks:

1) An overview of the world, akin to what is found at Maps Of Therafim - Therafim RPG - please note that the land of Heaven's Tear (the name is now changed to Heavengold. by the way) is not at all like how I picture that continent to be (I picture it looking more like Southeast Asia), and it will need to be completely redone. The maps presently in use were done by a good friend with Campaign Cartographer, but they are open to a fairly significant degree of creative license. I would prefer the world to look more-or-less like it does in the present map, mind, since it will mean less rewriting for me as I write up descriptions of each place in detail, but, as stated, I am quite flexible on that account. This overview map will only have labels for the continents and other minor landmasses or landmarks found in the water, and no others, so as to give a viewer an idea of where everything is in general terms only. But see the second task.

2) Drawings of each continent. This will require a bit more detail, as they will be filled up with many labels indicating where everything is in the game world. Continents - Therafim RPG lists most of the present set of places which should be taken into account. Please disregard Avalon City, however - I will be doing maps of individual cities at a later date, in a different project.

This will be a total of about eleven maps - ten plus the world overview. These do not need to be terribly detailed or intricate, or even especially artistic and "pretty," but are intended primarily for use in locating everything in the world. Because of the number of maps to be made, more than one cartographer/artist might be able to work on this project, and I will be paying for work on a map-by-map basis. Once I have paid for your work, I want to own the copyright to the map in question, so keep that in mind when providing pricing information.

Please contact me either by responding to this request, or by e-mailing me at gidkath(at)gmail.com - as I do not yet have access to private messages on these forums (though this may change fairly soon), e-mail is the best way to contact me for rapid arrangements and payments. I would prefer to pay via Paypal if possible, but I am reasonably flexible.

Thanks for being kind about my first significant post, and for being so helpful. I read over those rules, but did not have the page open while I was writing the actual post, so I am sure I forgot some things. So far, though, it looks as though I already have a few nibbles, which is great. ^.^ Still, I do hope to be a productive member of the community, and thank you again for being informative.

After a few unsuccessful nibbles, here are some additional bits of information folks interested in the project should know.

The maps will be fairly small, about 9x11 or large enough to fit on a standard computer screen.
The maximum total budget for this project is USD $500.
Color maps are prefered, but black and white is acceptable.
There is no specific deadline on this project.